All I Ever Knew
by SeoulPrince
Summary: My name is Drake; I'm a 14 year old boy from District 4... That was all I ever knew until I was reaped into the 78th Hunger Games three weeks ago and right now? I'm running for my life. Peeta Mellark is in a brief flashback.


All I Ever Knew [A Hunger Games Fanfic]

_by Matra_

* * *

My name is Drake; I'm a 14 year old boy from District 4. My mother and father were fish farmers. From the very first day of my existence, I spent my life on the edges of the sea, helping my family with the catches. We were a poor family, a poor yet simple, proud family. My father liked taking us for a swim; I was very good at swimming. My sister was the best though, I was always second and I liked it. We use to have swimming carnivals where all the kids of the village had a race, swimming from one shore to the other. It was a fairly quick swim, only about 500m. I don't tire quickly, I usually won the races. My father was very proud of me, my mother told me that I will grow into a very fine man and lead the family to success. I believe her. I always did. I love my mum and my father, my older sister was sometimes quite annoying and bossy, but I love her too. Every afternoon on Saturdays, my father would return from a hard day of fishing and I would always try to cheer him up by telling him a funny joke the old lady near our house would tell the children. On Sundays I use to run to Grandma's house and give her some of my father's catch the day before; sardines were normally a large majority of the batch. That was **all I ever knew **until I was reaped into the 78th Hunger Games three weeks ago and right now? I'm running for my life.

Ten years after the rebellion, Katniss Everdeen was put into power again. A rumor spread around Panem that she had gone AWOL and suffered from some mental illness. Out of nowhere The Hunger Games was reinstated and it continued from the 76th. Many were afraid to oppose against Katniss & her army, after all the war two years before had left the country torn and broken. Panem suffered greatly from the famine, disease, and poverty that were attacking the country. Our District was very lucky, we weren't apart of the war that much, our leaders didn't have the right equipment or weapons to fight in the war. When the reaping day came, I wasn't afraid. We had a lot of children in our District and the odds were definitely in my favor. Our escort Rimilda Vane, a lady with shining black hair who whore a bright blue dress with elegant stitches of sea creatures, walked excitedly towards the transparent bowl, dipped her hand into it, picked a name, read it out loud and I froze.

Three weeks later, I'm in the arena; a large desert with few trees, few water, plenty sand, random large hot boulders, packed with bloodthirsty young killers. The desert sun was burning against my skin, with no water and three career tributes chasing after me, I had no hope. I felt determined or at least wanted to feel determined. My mother and father, the whole village was watching. What will they think? I gripped the cold knife hard, the only hope for my survival.

"Poor little boy from District 4. Did you see how he winced when we gutted his little district-mate Violet?" A cold male voice whispered from behind the large boulder I was laying against.

"Drake, was it? Too bad the arena wasn't the ocean. How unfortunate, an arena so alien to him. It seems like the game makers wanted to kill him first." A high female voice said, laughing hysterically. I peered around, watching them while they searched for me in the masses of hot-desert boulder. The boy was tall, he was carrying a large sword with a grim expression on his face, and a murderous look that made my heart beat hysterically. The girl was only a little shorter than the boy; she had curly blond hair carrying a short-yew bow and a knife stuck to her waist. Another girl standing by herself had dark brown hair, with matching skin tone. Her expression calm and strange, her eyes were bloodshot and her hands were bloody. Her face was bruised and scarred, a warrior who had been in countless fights; I once saw a man like this. Once as I was walking back from school - walking carefully not to fall into the water and get my uniform wet - I saw a man who looked composed, yet frightening, standing outside uncles' house, who had disappeared two years earlier. The man was inexpressive like a statue. The man had the same scars and bruises like the girl in front of me. He stood there staring at the ground; no one went near him or even looked at him; it was like everyone was trying to pretend that he didn't exist. At the time I felt strange and I went to ask my father who that man was because he seemed quite familiar. Father told me that the man was named Peeta Mellark and he was a part of the recent rebellion. He came because he wanted to pay homage to uncle, a dear friend of his who I didn't know until then; was killed by the Capitol. Peeta Mellark had decided to visit Grandpa's and Grandma's house to tell them of their lost and give his condolences. Father forbade me to speak about this man again.

The two tall figures searched, and I took two deep breaths. I wasn't prepared to do this, I wasn't prepared to die. There were tears streaming down my face, my heart thumping against my ribcage. I covered my chest with my hands, afraid that they will hear my heart beating and come to slaughter me. _They'll find me eventually_ I thought. The girl with curly blonde hair was now very close to me, and any second now she would step on my hand and shoot me with her bow or cut me with her sharp knife. Now was the time for me to…to…to do what? I got up so quickly, I wasn't sure what I was doing. I struck at the girl with my knife taking her by complete surprise. I managed to cut her arm and blood poured out of her hand. We parried, and exchanged powerful blows. I wasn't on par with her strength and my knife suddenly slipped out of my bare hands. I wasn't as swift, strong or as tall as her. I was never trained to fight to the death, only in fishing and making father laugh on Saturday afternoons. I fell down on the scorching ground and tried to grab the knife. The girl stepped on my hands, making me scream with excruciating pain. I used my small-powerful legs to kick her - kick her like I would if I was in the water - as she fell, I grabbed a rock and smashed it against her knee. With a loud bone-breaking _crack_, she screamed and fell silent. I continued hitting her with the rock, and grabbed my knife to slice her on the wrist to ensure imminent death. I felt hysterical, I felt mad. What was I? Who am I? _*bang*_ The cannon fired, indicating the death of another tribute. The tall boy came running through the masses of boulder and his face contorted with horror at the scene; the small bloodstained boy from District 4 shivering, his knife smeared with blood as the girl laid their lifeless. The boy wrapped his strong fingers around his sword, but a second no later; the boy fell to the ground, an axe embedded into his spine. His eyes bulged and he fell onto the ground, dead. Everything went so quickly, I didn't know what had happened. *_bang_* The cannon fired again. Standing behind the once mobile boy was the ominous girl with dark brown skin, her face now changed, and full of uncontrolled madness. I remembered now that there were only three tributes left in the arena. What was I going to do? I barely killed the other girl; weeks of hiding, of dehydration and now…now death. My insides did a twist and started tingling. And then, I ran; ran faster than I had ever done. There was a large crevice behind a big tree. _Maybe she won't find me if I hide in there?_ I ran and jumped into it, curling into a ball, trying to hide my small body in the darkness. A few short minutes passed I waited for her to walk past so I might have a chance of killing her by quickly stabbing her on the back. I peered out of the darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of the girl. Then, she was there. Her blood stained lips parted to give a smile that would freeze the bones of Death itself. Her expression was reckless, uncontrolled evil. My eyes couldn't leave the horrible crevice with which she searched me, blindly, yet knowingly, peering into the darkness in which I hid. I backed away slowly, my heart pumping away, as if wanting to do as much as it could... before it couldn't beat at all. _Thump. Thump. Thump._ My heartbeat, her footsteps, intermingled as one...

Faster and faster, closer and closer, and then a slight pause in the beat, as I heard an ominous noise, a screeching, scraping sound of metal against metal, a sound that sent all of my five senses shivering... _*bang*_ Another cannon fired. I slowly peeked out, looking into the light, looking for her, but nothing remained there except the dead body of the only other remaining tribute; a young girl, probably my age, sprawled on the ground, blood trickling down her throat. Bewildered I turned around, feeling a cold shiver run down my body. And then I saw them, her mad eyes, her pale face and bloody lips. Her hands clenched the black handle of a knife, its bloodthirsty edge pointed towards me as if to deliver judgement. A tiny sliver of light pierced the darkness and I saw the blood-stained metal wink at me before she stepped closer, obscuring my vision and that...

**...was all I ever knew.**


End file.
